SPOILERS Ardyn

[Dionysos]

OPEN SPOILERS WITHIN THIS THREAD. DO NOT READ PAST THE IMAGE OF ARDYN IZUNIA IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SPOILERS.

Seriously....

Ardyn​

Ardyn is a character who is both sadistic and charming. He leaves an effective impression of fridge horror on the player. Yes, much of his actions are enigmatic at first (I wasn’t sure what to make of him and I wasn’t sure if I liked him at first), but once you are enlightened by the plot twists, it all slots into place.

To me, despite suffering the same fate of all FFXV characters (in that much of his story fails to be effectively communicated to the player within the game), Ardyn Izunia shines as one of the greatest (and / or most interesting) Final Fantasy villains so far. The shortcomings of the game’s plot delivery might deny Ardyn a chance to beat Kefka, Sephiroth, etc, where fandom’s popularity ratings lists are concerned, but the underlying concept of his character is among the best in my opinion.

Let me try to explain.



His story and achievements:

(Artwork of Ardyn as a revered hero-king over 2,000 years ago)​

Over two thousand years ago Ardyn had been the Chosen King of Lucis (his real name being Ardyn Lucis Caelum) destined to rid the world of the Starscourge and restore the light to Eos. I think it is implied that back then the Astrals / gods hadn’t yet split (or clearly defined a distinction between) the Oracles and the Chosen Kings. Ardyn served both roles; it was too much. He healed those inflicted with the Starscourge and prevented them from becoming daemons, but he did this by acting as a sort of sin-eater and absorbed the dark energy of the daemons into his being. Thus, when he went to fulfill his role as the Chosen King he was found to be impure and he was rejected by the crystal and the Astrals (this is one of the reasons why the Astrals afterwards decided to grant the Oracle the powers to heal the Starscourge, and they keep the Chosen King role separate). To make matters worse, Ardyn was betrayed by his own people as someone close to him (likely a brother or royal relative of some sort – possibly named ‘Izunia’) usurped Ardyn from his throne and had him banished for his impurity. This usurper’s descendants were Regis and Noctis.

Betrayed, and feeling impure, Ardyn became unhinged. With the souls/essences of millions of daemons inside him he became immortal. Occasionally his face slips into a rather creepy daemonic visage with black tears. Ardyn became the very thing which he was supposed to prevent, and it isn’t entirely his fault.


I love that Ardyn is a fallen hero who has been harbouring a spiteful grudge over millennia against the Lucian royal lineage and the Astrals. He has been plotting for thousands of years and has truly been playing the long game. His intentions were not obvious to me at all during most of my playthrough. Acting as the Chancellor of Niflheim, Ardyn was hiding in plain sight as I’d assumed that each of his actions was to do with aiding the Empire. It wasn’t. Ardyn played the Empire big time. He needed the Empire to get powerful enough to knock out the powerful state of Lucis and steal the crystal. He also needed to convince the Empire to experiment with militarising daemons and unwittingly bringing on the Starscourge (eventually leading to the Empire’s capital and all of its high command vanishing/turning into daemons). The Empire meant nothing to him other than a means to an end: his revenge against the Lucis royal line and his own death.

Ardyn also succeeded! Not since Kefka have we really had a villain who successfully brought the world to ruin in this way, but Ardyn’s achievement goes beyond this. Ardyn manipulated the Starscourge in forcing Noctis to commit to the will of the crystal and restore light to Eos. Ardyn knew that blood sacrifice is the only way that this sort of thing can be achieved, and that Noctis would need to sacrifice his life. With Noctis dead, Ardyn’s revenge against the Lucis Caelums is complete as there are no other known descendants. Likewise, part of Ardyn desired death and in forcing Noctis to kill him he finally achieves his rest as well. Win win.

Arguably FFXV is the first Final Fantasy game where the heroes actually lose. Yes, they also win in the sense that light is restored to Eos and the Starscourge and the daemons are defeated. But who is left in this world? How many dog tags does Dave need to collect now? Even though there is hope for some characters (such as Iris, Cindy, Talbot, etc) the main cast who we had followed throughout the game are all dead.


Fridge horror (something which is terrifying after the fact):
Some of the game’s most memorable scenes for me contain Ardyn, and it is interesting that many of his scenes make more sense and are creepier once you reflect on them. Once you learn of Ardyn’s origins, some of his earlier scenes are more enjoyable.

A perfect example would be the scenes with Prompto on the train. Ardyn hums the chocobo theme rather sadistically before boarding the train. At the time it was strange and entertaining. In hindsight it is likely revealing his intentions to body-swap with Prompto in the scenes which follow (Prompto is known to sing “I Want To Ride My Chocobo All Day” to the Chocobo theme, etc).

The body-swap itself also seems to happen a while before the player notices it. That scene with Noctis chasing Ardyn through the train? That was a confused Prompto disguised as Ardyn, frantically trying to evade Noctis’ attacks and questioning his friend’s sudden change of behaviour. If you watch that scene again, it is clear. As Noctis swings his sword at what he thinks is Ardyn, he yells at him for following him around everywhere and blames him for everything. Heartbroken, Prompto/Ardyn has no clue about what is going on and asks Noctis if he really means it. Prompto/Ardyn even uses some of Prompto’s recurring phrases (such as “cut it out!” and calling Noctis "Noct"). Possibly Prompto might be thinking that Noctis has discovered that he is a Magitek. Nevertheless, this is a really powerful scene – but only in hindsight.

This is how a lot of Ardyn’s genius works. He holds his cards to his chest, acting up as a flamboyant wanderer up until the moment when he knows his victory is guaranteed (that is, until the moment when Noctis is absorbed by the crystal and he is fixed on becoming the True / Chosen King).

Ardyn is also outright menacing at times, particularly during the second half of the game. His taunts during Noctis’ lonely trudge through the eerily abandoned capital of Gralea did their job. With the citizens and officials of the Niflheim Empire already vanished (having left only their clothes behind as they have transformed into daemons) I got the impression that the madman had taken over the asylum. No longer was Gralea the seat of the Empire. It was now a torture chamber for Noctis and his friends run by Ardyn.

Ardyn gave Insomnia a similar makeover. The illusory bodies of Regis, Lunafreya, Nyx and Emperor Iedolas not only kept Ardyn amused but gave Noctis another push to fulfil Ardyn’s wishes.


Character design:

I also want to compliment the character design of Ardyn (designed by Italian artist Roberto Ferrari). Its flamboyance fits Ardyn’s personality, but it also contains subtle hints about his true identity too. For a start his costume is predominantly black (the colour which Lucian royalty and those closest to the king wear). Also, the design of the costume suggests the antiquity of the character. Rather than wearing a modern costume, Ardyn appears to be wearing a costume which resembles Guy Fawkes. I’m not sure if it is intentional or not, but it fits. Guy Fawkes was famously part of a group of conspirators who attempted (but failed) to assassinate King James I (of England) by blowing up the House of Lords. Ardyn also planned to get rid of the king; Ardyn succeeded, and he also made quite a bang!

Musically speaking, the theme tune(s) of Ardyn compliment his character nicely. The second theme of Ardyn (the one which plays most of the time, I believe) is an interesting mix of the sinister and the heroic. It truly fits a character who began life as the hoped for Chosen One, but in doing his task he was corrupted and twisted into the monster he was fighting.

-

So… What do you think about Ardyn Izunia? Did you enjoy him as a villain? Hate him? Love to hate him?

 

[FinalxxSin]

If somebody asked me to rank Ardyn, I wouldn't even be able to do it. After finishing the campaign, I ended up having more questions than ever about the character. For me, he is still shrouded in mystery. I don't know if that was done on purpose or not.

 

[Linnaete]

I was joking about the guy being some creepy stalker, which is perhaps something I would have been more willing to suspend my disbelief were it not for the fact that the guy strolls around the place in broad daylight as the Imperial Chancellor, with no one able to recognise him for some inexplicable reason. The guy isn't even undercover and nor does he put much effort into subterfuge; it seems highly improbable that a man of his political stature is instantly recognised by King Regis, but by literally no one else outside of the Niflheim rank and file. Perhaps it is possible that he uses the same trick he pulls on Noctis on the train to avoid any risk of detection by any member of the public or any curious, discerning imperial officer, but there is zero indication or evidence of this. Niflheim must be one of the most secretive imperial states ever if they have successfully cultivated the image of leadership solely around Iedolas to the point that virtually no one recognises the bloody Chancellor's face and nor can even Ignis successfully put two and two together when presented with simply the name "Ardyn" before the guy has to flat out spell out his identity to the group. In addition, if the lore is correct, he's been in a position of potent political power in Gralea for roughly three decades, from the moment he introduced to the empire the technology to mass produce Magitek weapons of war. Am I also supposed to believe that no one within the imperial circles questioned why this man of dubious origins has seemingly not aged a day in thirty years? Has Iedolas never asked him where on Eos the fountain of youth from which he is clearly drinking from is located?

Ardyn is frustrating to me, as does practically everything else in this game's narrative. There are sparks of great ideas, clearly demonstrating that someone in Square Enix is able to come up with an excellent story - at least on paper. Having read your paragraphs and how you've told Ardyn's story, the potential is screaming out to you; here is the backstory for a villain that sets him up as a wronged Greek-like tragic hero, establishes a strong motive, and defines the guy's personality and characterisation. Absolutely - this guy sounds like excellent material, and if executed properly, would likely easily make him one of the series's best villains. Unfortunately, the way the game tells us his story is amateurish and smacks of being rushed out when the original script presumably had to be heavily condensed. Instead of some effective technique that has his backstory conveyed to us through some kind of visual imagery for instance, it's two scenes of simple spoken exposition, one by Bahamut, and the other clumsily done by Ardyn himself, as his voice is drowned out by both the background music and the sound of Noctis's incessant grunting and struggling. So at that very moment, if a player has left subtitles deactivated, they're unable to listen to some vital expository dialogue because even the sound work is bizarrely incompetent.

Even then, his story is very ambiguous in the game. I wouldn't blame anyone for feeling confused if all they have to work with is the game's explanation of Ardyn's backstory, without digging into exterior materials such as a lore book or something to put more meat onto the bones. If you listen to what he actually says in that cutscene, you still don't fully know who he was; was he also royalty, i.e. a real Lucis Caelum? Was he actually the healer? Who was this healer? Was he an Oracle? Did he have any royal blood? At no point does the game ever show the Jesus-like imagery of the guy being a hero only to fall from grace - one image of which you have posted and the other is floating around the internet somewhere. I understand that ambiguity is often deliberate and I appreciate an artist's desire for the audience to do some work to extrapolate and piece together the full story themselves, because it invites thought, engagement and discussion, but simply based on the game alone, we don't have enough of Ardyn to properly work with. There's not a single deity that refutes his story in any way either, so all we're left with is the notion that the gods are simply uncaring pricks.

What also harms Ardyn substantially is his connection with the Starscourge, or lack thereof, with regards to how the game tells its story. As you said, his intentions are poorly conveyed when you play through the game. You're left reasonably wondering if Ardyn engineered the Starscourge and if so, how and why. The simple answer is: no, Ifrit did it. Ardyn's ultimate goal is not to spread an eternity of darkness across the land, but as you pointed out, it's simply to shove off the (im)mortal coil for good, given his perception that his immortality is a curse and an emblem of divine betrayal, and to sever the familial line descended from a man whom had also betrayed him once and for all. The Starscourge is simply an incidental means to his ultimate end, which is a creation not of his, but of Ifrit's. You only learn about the following in some extraneous material (I think it was the guidebook or something? I dunno, it was something): Ifrit fell out with the other five deities for some reason, and the resulting feud resulted in the introduction of the Starscourge and the ruin of the old Solheim civilisation, leading to the modern nations of Lucis, Niflheim, Tenebrae and Accordo to emerge from their shattered forefather. As the game does not give Ifrit any characterisation, a player is left with the erroneous impression that Ardyn is the mastermind of something he had no part in, and with the erroneous impression that Ifrit bends to his will, when it's more likely a mutually beneficial partnership at that moment in time. So the lack of adequate explanations for something so basic further compounds the ambiguity problem as detailed in the preceding paragraph.

So to sort of summarise, I think Ardyn had potential that had the game executed competently when telling the story, would have made him easily one of the strongest villains in the franchise. In many ways, here's a sympathetic figure, whom you feel is rightfully infuriated, because practically everyone from 2,000 years ago elected to betray him, when he committed the ultimate sacrifice of rendering his own body impure in order to save the world. I also still chuckle at the thought of this guy being a clear stalker for much of the game, even going so far as to photobomb and comment on some of your photos during that weirdly amusing interval between Lestallum and Titan. But god...the way his story is told and how his motivations are conveyed is an abject failure.

 

[Dionysos]

I was joking about the guy being some creepy stalker, which is perhaps something I would have been more willing to suspend my disbelief were it not for the fact that the guy strolls around the place in broad daylight as the Imperial Chancellor, with no one able to recognise him for some inexplicable reason. The guy isn't even undercover and nor does he put much effort into subterfuge; it seems highly improbable that a man of his political stature is instantly recognised by King Regis, but by literally no one else outside of the Niflheim rank and file. Perhaps it is possible that he uses the same trick he pulls on Noctis on the train to avoid any risk of detection by any member of the public or any curious, discerning imperial officer, but there is zero indication or evidence of this. Niflheim must be one of the most secretive imperial states ever if they have successfully cultivated the image of leadership solely around Iedolas to the point that virtually no one recognises the bloody Chancellor's face and nor can even Ignis successfully put two and two together when presented with simply the name "Ardyn" before the guy has to flat out spell out his identity to the group. In addition, if the lore is correct, he's been in a position of potent political power in Gralea for roughly three decades, from the moment he introduced to the empire the technology to mass produce Magitek weapons of war. Am I also supposed to believe that no one within the imperial circles questioned why this man of dubious origins has seemingly not aged a day in thirty years? Has Iedolas never asked him where on Eos the fountain of youth from which he is clearly drinking from is located?

Ha ha. That’s a good point and I guess we need to suspend our disbelief quite a lot in order to forgive that. Ardyn even made the news in Insomnia just prior to the treaty signing (in Kingsglaive). I'm pretty sure that his face was projected onto buildings and it was announced that he was the Chancellor of Niflheim. Ardyn is a known public figure.

I think this is another plot execution issue, and they never sought to address this in the game. It isn't clear, but I'm wondering how out of touch Lucians outside of the capital Insomnia really are. Most of the Lucian landscape is ruined (only what amount to service stations and one important town survive). Compared to Insomnia the technology of the rest of Lucis is fairly backward (about 30 years old or older - we see analog technology rather than digital, and we know that Insomnia had hi-tech modern day / near-future technology). Since the war with Niflheim 30 years ago (which ended with the Second Wall only being able to protect Insomnia itself) the rest of Lucis was more or less cut off from Insomnia. Development halted and these places became backwaters. That's the impression I got from the bits of dialogue I witnessed, and also from the level of technology and ruined state of buildings which looked to be modern buildings (so I'm not confusing the modern ruins with the ruins of the ancient Solheim civilisation).

With that in mind I wouldn't be surprised to find out that most Lucians only heard about the Chancellor on the radio. They didn't get a clear image of his face blasted onto their hi-tech computer watches, mobiles, or plasma screen televisions. They just don't have this stuff lying around.


I’m actually also wondering how many other people could see Ardyn at Galdin Quay, Lestallum, etc. Ardyn wanted the party to see him, so he always presented himself to them, but perhaps he hid himself from other people. We know he can body-swap and shapeshift.

As for Ardyn working for the empire for 30 years, perhaps he did use magical trickery with them too. Or maybe he popped up, went away, and popped up again for different generations. They might not notice that he is the same guy if he skips a generation.

Ardyn seriously does suffer from the narrative problems. They could have explained some of these issues, but we at least needed more scenes with Ardyn in general in order to be better equipped to fan-theorise away these possible plot-holes in the way that we can with other games.

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I also rather like FFXV’s villainous version of Ifrit. He is, I think, the most interesting interpretation of Ifrit I've seen. Again, he suffers in that his story isn’t effectively told (it is barely told at all). The Starscourge was Ifrit’s aim, but Ardyn was able to ride it (and encourage it) in order to bring Lucis Caelum to ruin. Ardyn was able to help Ifrit in seeing the Starscourge sped up by actions such as encouraging the Empire to experiment with daemons, and by killing the Oracle (whose role was to heal the inflicted and hold the Starscourge at bay). Again, it is poorly communicated in the game and many of us are only fully aware of the implications of this story once we read the lore.

I don’t even mind that Ifrit doesn’t speak (to my knowledge – if he does then it is only a few words). He doesn’t rate the human race highly at all and likely doesn’t consider Noctis and co worthy of hearing him speak. Ifrit's story could still have been told by someone else (Gentiana / Shiva for example).

So much potential! I guess I’m lucky that I have an imagination and can just slot all of this stuff into the game using my mind. I can enhance the game in that way, although the game failed to deliver it itself.

The player shouldn’t have to do that. Many players wont be capable of doing that. I'm very lucky that I can and that I can still enjoy FFXV accordingly.

 

[Dionysos]

The anime prologue to FFXV's Episode Ardyn is now up on YouTube:

It gives a LOT more information about his background, slightly correcting some of my earlier interpretations of his character but not in a huge way.

I'm loving the Graeco-Roman aesthetics of Ardyn's past in antiquity. The vase painting cartoons in order to explain the lore was a nice touch, though it had a splash of Disney's Hercules.

I'm really quite looking forward to Ardyn's DLC. It'll be nice to see more of Dark Jesus' past while also getting to play as him in the more recent past where he begins to terrorise the kingdom of Lucis.

 

[bandokanon]

I only JUST discovered that animated piece about Ardyn last night, and it only left me with one feeling: I wish they would make a final fantasy set in a time period akin to ancient Rome/Greece, like this seems to be. That would be so very cool and different. A true departure from the norm, inventive but still capable of holding up as a final fantasy.

ANYWAY about Ardyn... I have a hard time feeling anything about any of the characters in XV. But with some more insight on Ardyn and his reasoning for doing what he did, I think I can appreciate him as a villain a little more. I just wish I'd had the means to know about this beforehand, so that I could have actually become invested. I feel like it's too little too late. And that's where most of my stance with XV as a whole remains. Everything that it needed from the get-go, we've been receiving late, via DLC. There is no self-contained story for this game. And in a few decades when we want to go back and relive the experience it's likely that, most of us won't be able to-- unless they release a final, complete physical copy of the game with all the DLC, maybe a separate set of discs for the anime and movie, and whatever else they intend to chunk in, in an affordable collectible boxset. But I digress-- if it weren't for everything I felt before now, I would be much more welcoming to this final chapter. (IF it's the final chapter.) It sounds like a lot of fun to be able to play as the villain, and it actually kind of gives me the chills when I watch him, as a playable character, tearing through civilians and military officials. It seems like it's going to be a blast for everyone playing.

Maybe in a few years when this is all over I will go back and actually play XV in full and appreciate it for the final product it turned into-- not what it started out as.

 

[Dionysos]

After some recent prompting I finally played Episode Ardyn yesterday... Only two years after the DLC was initially released.

I think it might be the strongest of all of the DLCs, but that could just be because I think the character Ardyn is one of the strongest aspects of the entire FFXV mythos. I think he's a brilliant character.

As suspected, the Jesus parallels are really strong in Episode Ardyn.
2,000 years ago Ardyn was wandering from town to town, performing miracles and healing people infected with the Starscourge. Ardyn preaches to gatherings under the shade of trees. He even says "I must see their will be done" which sounds like a paraphrasing of the Lord's Prayer. Ardyn was actually chosen to be the True King, but his brother Somnus betrayed him not unlike Judas betrayed Jesus (except worse, as Somnus didn't seem to experience guilt). To hide the true history of Ardyn, the Lucians rename him 'Adagium' and chain him up as a monster, since he has become immortal after absorbing the sins of those he healed. Adagium relates to a Latin word for Proverb!

Concept art of Ardyn being chained and entombed at the island of Angelgard looks
suspiciously like Christ being prepared for crucifixion. See also the artwork cited in the first post (above)
depicting Ardyn entering a city on a black chocobo, which mirrors Jesus'
memorable entrance on a donkey on Palm Sunday. ​

2,000 years later, after Ardyn's release from his bonds by the Niflheim empire, he encounters Ifrit held captive in Verstael's lab. After Ifrit breaks out and fights Ardyn, Ardyn uses his sin eating abilities on Ifrit himself, scarring the Astral severely and, I think, altering both of them from then on. Until this 'pact with the Devil' Ardyn hadn't really been evil. We could argue that part of Ifrit altered Ardyn in that moment and he became more obsessed with revenge. He became less himself as time went on and he absorbed more sins and memories from others, a point which the DLC stresses.

When Ardyn tries to get that revenge by coaxing the new King Regis into summoning the soul of Somnus, Ardyn's true purpose is explained to him by an interfering Bahamut. Ardyn is told he must become a 'sacrificial lamb' (just like Christ) to absorb the sins of others and take them to the grave by being defeated by Noctis (in return, he'll have his revenge since the Lucian line which betrayed and ruined him will come to an end).

So they've really doubled down on the Christlike imagery with Ardyn. The points where they don't really connect are in Ardyn's obsession with vengeance, but Ardyn did spend 2,000 years chained up in a cave whilst the people who betrayed him were celebrated as heroes, and to be fair to Ardyn the DLC shows that Ardyn wasn't really interested in Niflheim's Empire business until Bahamut, a god, essentially ordered him to. Ardyn was basically told he had to become a murderous asshole, and that he could not defy this fate if he protested.

FFXV's world is very depressing.

Are there any characters at all who are actually free?

 

[Dr. Percival Cox]

Really glad you posted this. Truthfully, I had virtually no impression of this character other than his aura of intrigue but he didn't impress me much. And while I cant say that reading this has made me like his character more (at least what's present in the main game since I havent gotten to play the dlc yet), I did really enjoy reading this and getting his pretty interesting backstory and has at least made me wanna replay the game again more.

But as you said, the story was very passively told in game. In fact, I barely had any grasp of the story of what was going on in the last 1/3 of the story.